Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy
Implementation of Queensland’s Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy (strategy) , is supported by a waste disposal levy. The Strategy provides the strategic framework for Queensland to become a zero-waste society, where waste is avoided, reused and recycled to the greatest possible extent.
The strategy focuses three core priorities: building economic opportunity; reducing the impact of waste on the environment; and transitioning to the principles of a circular economy to help retain the value of material in the economy for as long as possible.
It provides the framework to help deliver coordinated, long-term and sustained growth for the recycling and resource recovery sector while reducing the amount of waste produced and ultimately disposed of, by promoting more sustainable waste management practices for business, industry and households. These practices will also contribute to achieving the environmental vision, goals and targets identified in The Queensland Plan.
A series of guiding documents have been developed that provide clear direction on priority actions, timeframes and responsibilities:
- Respecting Country – A sustainable waste strategy for First Nation communities
- Keeping Queensland Clean: the Litter and Illegal Dumping Plan
- Queensland’s Plastic Pollution Reduction Plan
- Queensland Organics Strategy and Action Plan
- Queensland Resource Recovery Industries 10 Year Roadmap and Action Plan (PDF, 1.8MB)
- Energy from Waste Policy and Guideline.
End-of-life electrical and electronic products are also a priority under the Strategy. To progress activity in this space, an e-Products Action Plan was also released for consultation in 2023.
To support Queensland’s transition to a circular economy, the Queensland Government is also progressing a number of key actions as follows:
- Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander councils and communities to help reduce waste going to landfill, improve resource recovery and identify business, economic and employment opportunities from waste management and resource recovery activities.
- Working with councils to raise awareness about locally-available recycling options.
- Delivering information and education programs that support waste avoidance, repurposing, reuse, recycling, and litter and illegal dumping prevention.
- Supporting councils to improve waste and recycling collection services and tackle problem wastes.
- Working with businesses to reduce excessive packaging and make packaging waste recyclable.
- Making government purchasing decisions that avoid waste and support products containing recycled materials.
- Supporting research into new uses and markets for recycled materials.
- Supporting the development of product stewardship schemes that contribute to the sound management of products and materials throughout their life-cycle and across the supply chain.
- Developing material-specific action plans for identified problem wastes.
- Supporting infrastructure investment in locations to help improve community access to recycling.
The Community Summary provides simple actions to help Queenslanders reduce their own waste, boost recycling and reduce the impact of waste on the environment.
Waste strategy review report
The Queensland Government has completed a review of the strategy according to the requirements of s20-21 of The Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011. The review covered a three-year period from 2019 to 2022 and:
- examined progress towards achieving the strategy’s targets and any resultant outcomes
- assessed the ongoing relevance of the strategy
- identified issues affecting implementation of the strategy and potential solutions, and
- identified opportunities to improve the strategy and its implementation.
The Review found that the core elements of the strategy continue to be relevant to the vision of Queensland becoming a zero-waste society by 2050.
While the available data for the review period showed that Queensland was on track to only achieve two of the nine 2025 targets, the inclusion of the most recent data for the 2022-23 financial year, shows that the state is on track to achieve five out of nine 2025 milestone targets.
There is however, a need to continue to focus on improving the diversion and recovery of municipal solid waste.
Importantly, this data shows that since introduction of the strategy, total waste generated in Queensland has decreased by 15 per cent despite a population increase of 8.5 per cent in the same period. This includes a 78 per cent reduction (975,000 tonnes) in waste received from interstate sources.
Next steps
The next steps will be to progress key recommendations of the review, starting with:
- updating the strategy to better align content and structure to the circular economy principles in support of Queensland’s transition to a circular economy
- developing a circular priority products and materials list to replace current “problem waste” listed in the strategy
- continuing to review and reform the policy and legislative framework and identify where provisions can be modernised to better support circular economy objectives of the strategy and the Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011.
References
- Government response to the investigation
- Key performance indicators for the Queensland Waste Strategy
- Opportunities for Queensland’s waste industry (see availability)